Music and Darkness
by Luc16
Summary: Hey so this is my first fanfiction and it doesn't have to do with Percy and the gang but i will add them to the story later! This is about 2 new characters that i made up and their journey as demigods. I hope you like it and i would love your input!
1. Chapter 1

My town was quiet. Usually it's a calm quiet but today, something felt different. Something was going to happen today, something that would change my life. I could feel it. You know that feeling? It's heavy and makes you anxious, but you don't know why. Who knows, it could be a good change. But then again you can feel if it's good or bad too. When it's good, it makes you anxious but in anticipation for what's coming. When it's bad, it makes you anxious because you're dreading what's coming. Today I had the bad anxious feeling. I walked down the street, waved to Mrs. Parker, and said hello to Mr. O'Henry. Mrs. Parker works at the grocery store and on a good day she has a plate of cookies at the register. Mr. O'Henry works at the pawn shop and walks around with a cane. He always steals the plate of cookies. I get to my apartment building and walk up to my apartment trying to figure out this feeling.

"Michael Eugene Heiler! Where have you been? I told you to come straight here after school. It's now an hour after school! Where were you?" my mom asks frantically. She's pacing around the room picking up things she'll need for her trip.

"Sorry mom. Mr. Velpoll told me to clean up after class," I answer quickly. I hope she's too busy to hear me because she doesn't need to know I fell asleep in class again. I've been falling asleep in class more and more but I'm not the only one. There are others but they're not me. I have dyed-red hair, piercings outlining both my ears, and I wear skinny jeans. Somehow this makes me a target for all of the teachers so I tend to get in trouble a lot. Add dyslexia and ADHD onto that; school is a nightmare.

"Again? What did you do this time?" my mom asks growing serious. Dang, she heard me. I go to answer her but something catches my eye from the window. My head snaps to get a better look but it's gone. I stare at the window and realize I was holding my breath. I exhale and try to put it out of my head. I think I need to add delusional to my list of disabilities because I've been seeing some pretty wacky stuff lately. I've seen what looked like an old woman flying but she had chicken legs and a lion with wings. Lately, I've seen more and more and they always seem to be watching me. When I don't answer, my mom looks at me about to scold me but her phone alarm goes off. She sighs, looks at the time, and groans.

"Mikey, we'll talk about this later. I have to go," she says then turns back to me, "Are you sure you'll be alright? Because if you don't want me to leave, I can stay." I tear my gaze from the window and say, "Mom, it's a week. I'm twelve, I'm a big boy. I'll be fine."

"Ok, ok. But if you run out of food, there's money in the jar-"

"-on top of the fridge and I'll get some groceries. Not junk food, but good food. Go! Have fun in Washington D.C. mom, I'll be fine," I reassure her. She sighs and nods her head. She wraps me in a hug and whispers, "I love you baby." I mumble an "I love you too" and push her out the door. As the door shuts, I look around the apartment. There's the living room in the middle with the kitchen and bathroom to the left and two bedrooms to the right. We have an old couch, old TV, and a towering book shelf in the living room. The window takes up most of the far wall and lets in the majority of the light. My mom's clutter is everywhere; on the couch, hanging off the TV, and lying on the floor. For a couple of minutes I clean everything up and then head outside. If you're wondering where my dad is in this picture, he's not. My mom told me that he left when I was a baby because of his work. She told me he was a great musician and that he wanted to stay but she told him not to. I've asked her what his name was but she won't tell me. All she tells me is that his voice was like heaven. I don't hate the guy but I don't particularly like the guy either. I'm fine with not knowing him or even meeting him. He hasn't been in my life so why should I try to be in his? I walk to the park and notice it's gotten darker. I look up at the sky and it's a murky grey color. We usually have pretty overcast weather here but it doesn't usually get like this until winter. I cross my arms as the wind picks up. Another thing, there's nobody in the park. Usually there's at least one family here walking through because it's on the way from the elementary school, but now it's just me. The anxious feeling starts feeling even more oppressive and I wonder if I should go back inside.

"I'd go back inside if I were you," a voice says from my left. I turn towards it and see a girl about my age sitting on the bench. She looks up at me with blank white eyes and it feels like she's looking through me. I shiver. She's wearing a pair of old jeans that look too big and a black sweatshirt. She has long, shiny black hair and she swings her legs back and forth.

"Why?" I ask, looking around. I can feel someone watching me and I know it's not this girl.

"Can't you feel it? A dark, oppressive feeling? Whenever I feel it, it usually means something bad's going to happen," she states mater of factly.

"You feel it too?" she nods. Suddenly I hear a screech and feel claws push me to the ground. I hit the ground hard and feel the breath rush out of me. I get up on my hands and knees and try to remember how to breathe.

"Hey, what's happening? Are you ok?" I hear the girl ask. I look towards her and see that she has moved under the bench. I'm about to say "yes" when I hear another screech. I look up and can't believe what I'm seeing. An ugly woman flies in the air but she has chicken legs and wings for arms. She starts flying towards me and I roll under the bench to avoid her claws. I bump into the girl and she grips my arm.

"What is it? I can't see it but I can hear something awful. What does it look like?" she stares at me with those white eyes and I see that she's scared. This has happened before. I start to explain what the ugly-chicken-woman is but her claws start raking the bench. The girl and I cover our heads as splinters from the bench fall on our heads. Suddenly the ugly-chicken-woman stops scraping the wood and flies over Mr. O'Henry's head. She flies right in front of him and screeches but he all he does is bats his hands, as if to shoo a fly away.

"Michael? What are you doing under there?" Mr. O'Henry asks when he sees me. I realize that the ugly-chicken-woman is distracted and this is the perfect time to escape. I grab the girls hand and crawl out from under the bench. As soon as we're both on our feet I start running. Not I light jog, but full out sprint. I hear the ugly-chicken-woman screech again and I pump my legs faster. I start to head back to my apartment when the girl says, "No, this way!" She pulls me into an alley and then turn down another alley. I can hear the ugly-chicken-woman getting closer and I try to suppress the terror that's rising in my throat. The girl pulls me down another street and then stops by a manhole. She lifts the manhole and jumps down. I hesitate for a minute but now I can feel he ugly-chicken-woman's wings on my neck. I jump down into the manhole and my feet squish into who-knows-what. The ugly-chicken-woman screeches in anger and then the girl is pulling me down the tunnel. She pulls me through a maze of dark tunnels and I begin to wonder if she knows where she's going but then I remember she's blind and why would she know where she's going? It's pitch black and I'm about to ask her where we're going but she stops. We catch our breath for a minute and then she says, "Don't worry. I know where we are." I look towards her voice but I can't see anything in this tunnel.

"How? I mean, aren't you blind?" I ask. I hear her chuckle and she says, "Yeah but since I've lived in the dark all my life, why shouldn't I know the dark best?" When I don't answer she says, "This is going to sound crazy but I can sense where things are. It's not seeing but I can feel my surroundings. Like, I know that you have your hands on your knees because I can sense it. I don't know how, I just do." I think about it and then answer, "That's not as crazy as what was chasing us." I explain what was screeching and flying after us, not really sure if I believed what I was saying.

"Wow, well I'm glad I'm not the only one who's affected by it. Usually it just comes and torments me and no one else can see it," she explains. She takes my hand and starts walking.

"This thing has attacked you before? How do you avoid it?" I ask.

"I usually try to find a big stick to hit it with. I can't sense things in the air so I usually just end up waving it around my head," she replies. I laugh picturing her doing that in the park.

"By the way, I'm Michael but you can call me Mikey," I introduce myself.

"Nice to meet you Mikey! I'm Elizabeth but you can call me Eli," she says. In the darkness, I swear I see her turn back and smile. She's really pretty when she smiles.


	2. Chapter 2

I open the man hole and poke my head out. I don't sense anything so I beckon Mike to follow. We climb out of the man hole and I can feel him looking around. He's tall and lanky, almost like he doesn't fit his body quite yet. His hair feels messy and his ears feel bumpy. Oh, that must be piercings on his ear.

"So, do you know where we are?" Mike asks and pulls me from my thoughts.

"On 5th street next to the butcher shop," I respond. Mike looks around and then makes a noise of rememberance.

"I see where we are," Mike says and pulls me towards the sidewalk. His hand feels really big and I can feel his pulse racing. We walk for a few minutes and then stop.

"I was going to go back to my house. Do you think it's safe to go back?" he asks.

"I think it lost our scent. It should be fine to go back," I let my hand relax thinking he'd say goodbye. Instead he grips my hand and says, "Good." We walk back to his house in silence. I can feel him digesting what just happened and wonder when he'll realize how weird I am. I mean, I'm blind yet I can feel my surroundings? That just spells "freak" all over it. He kept holding my hand though. After awhile I could feel tremors coming from it. As much as he wanted to look strong he was scared about what was going on. He seemed to realize this and said in a shaky voice, "As soon as we get inside, tell me everything you know, 'kay?" I nodded in response. We walked up to his apartment and he ushered me inside. The apartment felt like it had recently been cleaned but not very well.

"Sorry about the mess," Mike apologized.

"I'm blind remember? it doesn't matter what it looks like," I lied. It always seemed to reassure people when I constantly reminded them I was blind.

"But you can sense stuff right?" Mike asked. I blinked. Nobody had ever believed me when I said that.

"Right?" he asks again. I nod silently.

"Do you want something to drink? I'm dying of thirst," Mike says as he heads towards another room, which I assume is the kitchen.

"Sure," I reply. I look, feel around and see a guitar leaning against the wall.

"Do you play?" I ask. I walk over to it and lightly touch the strings.

"Yeah, I taught myself," he answers. He comes back with two glasses of water and hands one to me. I thank him and clears off the couch for us to sit on. After a couple of sips and awkward seconds of silence he says, "Okay, tell me everything."

"Alright. Whatever that thing is it's been tormenting me for quite awhile but no one else can see it. I always thought I was insane or something because everybody seems to see something else. Like I sense something attacking me and I can feel people look at me like 'what are you doing?' I don't know where it comes from but I know there are more like it," I explain.

"There are more?" Mike asks. I nod and say, "The ones that stay on the ground I can usually run away from but the ones that fly terrify me. They'll come out of nowhere and attack me. Sometimes they've even picked me up and then dropped me."

"You've been doing this by yourself?" he asks. I nod again.

"Where are your parents?" I take a sip of water.

"I never knew my parents. I was put into an orphanage when I was a baby and stayed there until I was seven. When I told the woman there about what attacked me she thought I was possessed and kicked me out. She was very religious. I've been on my own ever since," I replied quietly. We were silent for awhile. His pulse had calmed down and wasn't shaking anymore.

"So what about you?" I ask, wanting to change the subject, "Where's your parents?"

"My mom just went on a trip for a week and I don't know who my dad is. He left before I was born. My mom said he was an awesome musician and that she pushed him to pursue his career, even if that meant leaving us," Mike shared.

"So you get the musical talent from your dad?" I asked.

"Yeah I guess so," Mike sighed, "Well, what do we do now?"

"Well, probably get cleaned up, because who knows what was in that sewer and then go on with our lives," I answered.

"Oh makes since. You can use the shower first if you want. It's on the left," he reaches for the TV remote and flicks it on.

"Really?" I ask. I've never met anyone this generous. Or accepting for that matter.

"Sure," he answers. He's not really looking at me and I realize he's still trying to grasp what I told him. I walk to the bathroom and lock the door. I step in the shower and try to figure out which one's shampoo and which one's conditioner. The thicker one I think is shampoo and the thinner one is conditioner. As I'm in the shower, I think about everything that happened. This kind of attack happened every day but it was unusual to find someone who could see the attack and get attacked themselves. Add the acceptance and kindness, this was one of the weirdest but best days of my life. I braided my hair, found a hair tie, and walked back out to the living room. Mike was still sitting on the couch but now he had a sandwich in his hand.

"You all done?" he asks with his mouth full.

"Yeah," I chuckle. He realizes his mistake and swallows.

"My mom always tells me to talk when I'm done eating. Guess I never listen," he says and he finishes the sandwich.

"Well I better get going," I say.

"Oh you can stay if you want," he says. The offer is much more tempting than I think and I shake my head.

"I don't want to impose and I should probably get home before it turns dark," I reply.

"You can tell when it gets dark?" he asks. I shake my head and say, "I can feel the time." His mouth makes an "O" shape and he nods his head.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" he asks.

"No, but thank you. For tonight, I wouldn't go out again. If you get attacked tomorrow either run away or hit it with a big stick," I advise. He nods thanks and I head out the door. As I'm walking down the stairs, I get the feeling this isn't the last time we'll run into each other. That makes me oddly happy.


	3. Chapter 3

Mike

When I wake up the next morning, my neck is cramping, my foot's asleep, and I have drool dribbling out of my mouth. I groan as a stretch and wipe my mouth. I had fallen asleep on the couch while watching TV, too scared to even move. As I ate breakfast, I recounted the strange events of yesterday. I wondered if I should tell my mom but I quickly banished that thought. What could she do about the ugly-chicken-woman? That was if she even believed my story. I quickly came to the conclusion that this adventure would remain a secret between Eli and me. Remembering of Eli, I wondered if I would ever see her again. I didn't know where she lived. I knew she didn't go to my school. I also knew I had never seen her before yesterday. I put on some new clothes and peeked my head outside. Not sensing anything, I went outside. It was a nice day, bright and warm. There was no lingering bad feeling from yesterday and I didn't see the ugly-chicken-woman. I stopped by the grocery store and grabbed a cookie that Mrs. Parker had brought. It was a chocolate macadamia nut cookie today, it wasn't bad. I walked into the park looking for Eli. She wasn't anywhere to be seen. I felt a little disappointed but that was weird because I'd just met her. I shrugged the feeling and sat on the bench. I was enjoying the day when suddenly the bad feeling was back. And it wasn't warning me like before, it was screaming at me to run as fast as I could. Before I knew what I was doing, I was sprinting down the park pushing my legs to go faster. I hear an angry screech and splintering wood behind me. I urge my legs to go faster. My heart's beating out of my chest and fear is making me run. I can feel the wings of the ugly-chicken-woman and desperately look for a manhole. At the moment I feel the ugly-chicken-woman's talons brush my arm, a hand grabs me and pulls me down an alley.

"Come on!" Eli shouts as I stumble. I find my balance and soon I'm running in front of Eli, fear governing my actions. I start to go down another alley but Eli shouts, "No! This way!" She pulls me towards the main street and runs out into the street. I suck in my breath as I hear a car's brakes screech. Eli keeps running and I hear a pained scream and thud as the ugly-chicken-woman is crashed into by the car. There are gasps and shouts, but Eli keeps running. We run for a few more minutes and then Eli slows in an alley. I gasp for breath with my hands on my knees.

"How-How did you find me?" I pant. She takes a few breaths then says, "I sensed you were in trouble." She pushes a few hairs out of her face and looks around.

"How? I mean, I got the sense thing yesterday but that was when we were right next to each other. How can you sense me when I'm not next to you?" I question. She kind of flinches and has the look of I-shouldn't-have-said-that. She sighs and motions me to follow her. We walk down the alley and turn left into another alley.

"Eli?"I ask.

"I can sense the shadows," she says quietly. When I don't answer she stops and faces me.

"I don't know how or why but I can feel the shadows around me. At least I think that's what they are. I can sense dark pools everywhere and they outline different shapes. That's how I can sense things," she explains.

"Really?" she nods. "That's awesome! I wish I had some cool thing like that." Her head snaps up and she looks at me incredulously.

"What?" I ask uncomfortable. Her eyes are blank but I feel like I'm looking into nothing. Sure, you think, she's blind. Of course she has eyes that don't look like anything because she can't see anything. But no, these eyes are like looking into a place where there is no emotion or motive to do anything. Like looking into nothing. Eli looks at me for a second longer and shakes her head muttering, "So strange." We walk for a couple more minutes and then I find that we're at my apartment just at the back entrance.

"Wow, you remembered where I live? But last time we came in the front way, how did you know which building it was?" I ask. She shrugs.

"I remember the place not how many steps it takes for me to get somewhere. I'm not a typical blind girl," she replies.

"How far can you sense?" she thinks for a moment then says, "I guess about ten feet in every direction." I whistle in amazement.

"Well, I guess this is where I say goodbye," she turns to leave but I grab her hand.

"Wait," I say, "Why don't you hang out with me?" She shakes her head.

"Sorry, I have something I need to do," she turns and walks back the way we came. I go up to my apartment, feeling like an idiot. Why don't you hang out with me? What were we supposed to do? Gosh I was an idiot sometimes. I should've said, hey let's go get a cookie from Mrs. Parker or listen to some music in the music store. But no, I decided to be vague and look like I was scared. Which I was. I wasn't used to being attacked and it was nice being with someone who seemed to know what they were doing. I hoped it the attacks wouldn't be a regular occurrence as I picked up my guitar and strummed it. I stayed inside for the rest of the day, singing about chocolate macadamia nut cookies.


	4. Chapter 4

Eli

I was stumped. My mind was spinning at a thousand miles per second, trying to understand Mike's words. He thought my "sense" power was cool? No one had ever thought that. Well, I mean no one had believed me when I'd said I had a "sense" power so someone thinking it was cool was a radical change. And he'd wanted to hang out with me? A blind girl? I shook my head, thoroughly confused. Mike was strange but in a good way. The more I thought about it the more I realized that Mike wasn't weird, he was just nice. I hadn't met a lot of genuine nice people in my life. But Mike wasn't just nice, he was accepting and trustworthy. He had a presence about him that just said, "Trust me. I'm your friend." As I came to the end of an alley, I got out my retractable walking stick. It always made people feel better when I had this around to warn them that I was blind. People always did a double take when they saw my eyes and realized I was walking without a walking stick. I tapped it on the ground, walking slowly, acting the part of the blind girl. This got really annoying sometimes. To entertain myself, I'd sometimes purposely hit people to see their heads snap up in annoyance then do nothing as they realized I was blind and "trying to find my way." I made my way to an old run-down house that needed some major renovation. I retracted my walking stick and walked inside. The first impression the house gave was old. It had a musty, sickly smell that identified elderly people. It took a minute to adjust from cleanish air to old-people-smell, but you got used to it.

"Eli? Is dat you?" a withered voice called.

"Yes G-man! It's Eli," I answered back. I walked into the living room and there sat G-man, also known as Old Man Eduard. He had white paper thin hair and skin that looked like dried prunes. He wore an old green sweater and brown khakis. His back was hunched and he walked around with a cane that had an ugly gnome face as the pommel. His eyes used to be a bright blue but now they'd dimmed to a light blue and had a white film covering them. He wore big glasses that let him see shapes but not much else. He was almost as blind as me. Of course he didn't know I was blind. See, I've been living with G-man since I was nine. Before that, I had lived on the streets for two years after getting kicked out of the orphanage I had grown up in. Those two years were nasty. I had lived in more than ten different cities, always getting chased out by the monsters that haunted me. One night, I stumbled upon G-man's house and begged him to let me stay one night. He let me in and in the morning he made a deal with me. He'd let me stay with him if I took care of him. He explained to me that his family wanted to put him in an elderly home because of his eyes. However, he liked his house and his independence so he told his family he'd prove he could take care of himself. Well he had been failing miserably until I came along. We made a deal and I've been living here ever since.

"Where you been? I's worried," he stated as he turned back to _Gone With the Wind_.

"Oh, I was out taking a walk when I got distracted," I explained. G-man talked with a slight southern accent; I think it's from all the southern movies he's watched. I called him G-man because at one time he was really into the whole hip-hop, rap thing and said he needed a cool name to stay young. So we came up with G-man and it stuck.

"I'm going to get the groceries, do you need anything special?" I asked. I'd memorized the grocery list since I couldn't well write it down or read it.

"Yesh, some dogs'd be nice," he replied. I translated that as I want hot dogs for dinner.

"Alright, I'll be back soon," I wrapped my hair up and placed a hat over my head to cover it. When I went out for the groceries or anything else, I dressed as a boy. It would look to weird to have a blind girl go and get food without help. The trip was short since I'd also memorized where everything was in the store and I headed back to G-man's place. As I came closer to the house I had a dark feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. I felt like someone was watching me. I hurried into the house and started putting away the groceries. Then an unearthly screech filled the kitchen. I yelped and fell backwards.

"Eli? Yous alright?" G-man calls. I can't sense anything in the room but I can feel the window quiver slightly. The ugly-chicken-woman was flying outside the kitchen window.

"I-I'm ok! It's just a bird, I'll get rid of it!" I answer G-man. I had to get it away from the house. I got up shakily and headed for the door. I took a deep breath, opened the door, and sprinted for the park.


	5. Chapter 5

Mike

After singing about chocolate macadamia nut cookies I sang about the ugly-chicken-woman and using words my mother would not of been happy to hear. Thinking of my mom, what was I going to tell her about yesterday and today. I'm sure she'll hear about how I've been running around like a maniac. I could be training for a marathon, I thought. I dismissed that thought quickly, running around like a maniac wasn't justifiable marathon training. I put down my guitar and decided to check my email. I had a couple of notifications from music websites and a message from my friend. It read:

Mikey! Check this out! It's called parkour! It's freaking awesome!

It had a link on the end and I clicked it. After watching for minute I knew that parkour was going to be my excuse. It was perfect! Plus, perfect training for later. Later? How did I know that I was going to have more chicken-women after me? It seemed pretty ludicrious but then wasn't a chicken-women pretty weird too? Plus, she'd already attacked me twice. I got the feeling that she wasn't going away and that there was the possibility of there being worse things than her. I sighed. Why was this happening to me? I shook my head, no use in worrying over questions I couldn't answer. I watched the rest of the parkour video and a few tutorials afterwards. I decided I'd try this new sport. I headed outside and decided to start in an alleyway. I had watched this one guy do a flip by running towards the wall, stepping on the wall, and propelling himself into a flip. It didn't look that hard so I tried it. It worked. The feeling of not touching anything for a few milliseconds was exhilarating. I landed on my feet and stumbled a little bit, but all in all, I had done it. I whooped in triumph and tried it again. This time I didn't step high enough and nearly landed on my neck but was able to rotate enough to land on my knees. I winced at the pain in my knees and examined the damage. Both knees were pretty scraped up and it was definitely going to be sore for a couple of days. I brushed myself off and looked up when I heard someone else enter the alley from the opposite end. It was Eli, and she was running for her life.

"Run," she panted as she passed me. I ran after her and soon heard the ugly-chicken-woman behind us. Again, man this creature was persistent! Eli and I weaved through different alleys but the ugly-chicken-woman was having none of it. She followed our every move and I got several new scratches on my shoulder from her attempts to grab me.

"Should we try to get to the sewer?" I gasped. Eli shook her head and replied, "Too far. Don't feel any entrances nearby." I cursed. What could we do? We had found our way to my school. It was a two story building with a wall of about seven feet surrounding the perimeter. It was pretty intimidating and I hated it. Looking at the high walls, I suddenly got an idea.

"I have an idea," I panted. I grabbed Eli to stop her and yelled, "Hey ugly! Yeah you, do you ever clean your feathers? They're disgusting!" Elis whispered a, "What are you doing!?" but I had achieved what I wanted. The ugly-chicken-woman's full attention was on me and naturally I started running. I ran straight towards the wall. I stepped on the wall and propelled myself backwards. This time, I got it perfectly and my plan worked. The ugly-chicken-woman had been focused on my and hadn't realized the height of the wall. She smacked into the wall with a screech and disintegrated into dust. I scrambled away from the falling dust and ran back to Eli.

"That was," she started looking stunned, "wicked!" Her face broke into a smile and I couldn't help smiling back.

"Thanks, just learned that today," I said. I felt pretty proud that I had pulled it off so well. I small part of me was glad Eli was blind so she didn't see my scraped knees.

"Is that why you fell in the alleyway?" she asked. Guess she could sense them.

"Yeah, I was trying it for a second time but I didn't step high enough," I explained. Eli nodded, still looking impressed.

"Ok, so now that we've met for the second time today, I get the feeling we should stick together," I suggested. Eli looked like she was about to protest but then nodded.

"Yeah I guess that would probably be safest," she turned to look at me.

"Thanks, you know for saving me," she smiled. I smiled in return and said, "Your welcome! Would you like to come back to my house and play some video games?"

"We should probably stay away from your house just in case some creature comes in through the window and destroys where you live," she said.

"Oh, right. Good idea," I couldn't help but be a little disappointed she'd rejected my offer. I was about to ask her where we should go when she gasped.

"What?" I asked. She was staring in the direction behind me and I turned to see what she was looking at. Standing behind us was a lion. I know, a lion? But seriously, a lion.

"Are you seeing what I'm sensing?" Eli whispered. I nodded and gulped. I took a step back and the lion roared. Great, we get rid of one hideous creature, and we meet another one. How weird could my life get?


End file.
